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[duskdrums]

Loving JRiver MC17 as usual.
While the Netflix, HULU, and Youtube access are great, I think there are a few things that can make theater view even better for those of us primarily relying on streaming content rather than Blue-ray or Rips.

First, additional plugins for sites like HBO Go, MOG, and Amazon Instant would be fantastic. Realizing that that takes a lot of work on the developers end, there are a few things that could help make the experience better in the meantime. For example:

Second, It would be great if external sites could be nested under audio. I would much rather have MOG under audio than as a separate top-level category in Theater View. It seems that this is possible for Video (I can nest my HBO GO external site for instance). Similarly, I would love the ability to create a subcategory under Video under which I put all of my streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, etc and my external sites such as HBO Go).

Third, It would be much preferred if we did not have to login to these serves as often. This may be out of JRiver's control, but, for instance, every time I select  the External Site I created for HBO GO, I have to sign back in, which is a real hassle.

Fourth, for streaming services like Netflix and Hulu and Youtube, it would be great if we could edit the subcategories that are displayed. For instance, for Youtube, I would prefer to start with the search menu rather than Top Rated, and for Hulu, I would want to remove the popular trailers category as I never use it. Obviously different people have different needs, so making this editable would be great.

I of course have some requests for the individual hulu and netflix plugins (showing the show title, not just the episode title for Hulu shows for instance, and allowing us access to our queue for Hulu which would require logging in), but I imagine these take more work.

All in all JRiver is a fantastic program and MC17 has made great strides in from-the-couch viewing by improving Theater View. Hopefully you can take it to the next level for streaming services in the new year, allowing users to replace added devices such as Rokus and apps on blue-ray players.


Thanks!!

[JimH]

Good suggestions.  Thanks.  As you said, it is a lot of work.  The biggest problem is that these sites aren't generally keen on letting other companies play their content.  Each one requires a lot of detective work, and they tend to break our support from time to time.  Still, what you propose fits well with what we envision.

[sgomes]

Some sort of simple Javascript-based SDK for Theater View could solve a lot of these problems. With that, tech-savvy users could develop free plugins that integrate well with Theater View, taking that burden off JRiver's hands, simply by displaying a web page on an HTML View inside MC with some custom scripting.

Granted, this would only work for web-based services, unlike a full, binary SDK, but it might give users the apps they're looking for (such as Lovefilm and the various on-demand TV catch-up services in the UK, in my case) without you having to develop or maintain them. Plus, it would be a million times easier to develop for, as MFC and Windows SDK have a pretty steep learning curve.

Something to think about, perhaps

[Castius]

A quick fix that would help is alittle better web browser support.
Right now when you click on a link it opens a new window.
But on my setup that is on the wrong monitor.

I use kylo browser for now but it would be cool if the browser part of theater view.
So i don't have to switch apps.

Thanks

[MrHaugen]

Some sort of simple Javascript-based SDK for Theater View could solve a lot of these problems. With that, tech-savvy users could develop free plugins that integrate well with Theater View, taking that burden off JRiver's hands, simply by displaying a web page on an HTML View inside MC with some custom scripting.

Granted, this would only work for web-based services, unlike a full, binary SDK, but it might give users the apps they're looking for (such as Lovefilm and the various on-demand TV catch-up services in the UK, in my case) without you having to develop or maintain them. Plus, it would be a million times easier to develop for, as MFC and Windows SDK have a pretty steep learning curve.

Something to think about, perhaps

A very good point. Developing a good and well documented SDK for Theater View plugin's would definitely help a lot for further requests. There is a LOT of web based services that would be great to integrate with Theater View, but JRiver will never be able to support them all. This is in my opinion the best, and quite frankly, the only long term solution. Look at how other Media Centers does it. Most of the popular media centers have user based plugins, and they have superior support to online content.